Answers sought six years after death of Framingham woman's sister

Cody Shepard The Enterprise @cshepard_ENT

Sunday

Mar 10, 2019 at 1:00 AM

"We have no more answers than we had the night she died," said Stephanie Deeley, of Framingham, who is Kimberly Parker's sister. "Kim was found unresponsive on her front lawn. The only person with her was her husband."

ABINGTON — Kimberly Boleza Parker was one of the most adventurous people you could ever meet.

Whether it was bungee jumping, off-roading, riding a motorcycle, jumping from a plane or even letting her too-young-to-drive nephew operate a snowmobile nearly 80 mph down a hill in New Hampshire, she was always up for adventure.

But, as adventurous as she was, Parker was equally genuine.

Her sister, Stephanie Deeley of Framingham, remembers a time when she visited Parker while she was attending The Medical University of South Carolina for graduate school. They had gone out to dinner and were walking through a park on their way back to Parker's apartment.

"There were a couple of homeless gentlemen in the park. I thought Kim was just going to give them our leftover food, but Kim went over, sat down on a bench with them, engaged them in a conversation," Deeley said. "I was very standoffish, I'm embarrassed to say, but after a few minutes, I got involved and we ended up spending like an hour talking to these guys. To Kim... everybody was equal, everybody was valuable."

Parker never had it easy in life. Her father died less than a month after her fifth birthday and her mother, who had serious health issues for years, died months after Kimberly turned 22. She was raised mostly by Deeley and her brother, Ed Boleza of Abington, and her friends.

But she was still highly successful. She owned a home, she became a bio-safety officer at two different hospitals in Boston and a bio-safety manager at a third. She also worked for the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services, responding to hazardous materials incidents.

But six years ago today, under what her family say are suspicious conditions, it was all taken from her.

Parker was found unresponsive on the front lawn of the East Bridgewater home she shared with her husband, Richard R. Parker. She was rushed by ambulance to Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital. But it was too late. Doctors pronounced Kimberly Parker dead.

Her family says they are left with the same questions they had immediately after her death.

"We have no more answers than we had the night she died," said Deeley. "Kim was found unresponsive on her front lawn. The only person with her was her husband, who was facing charges for attempted murder and a slew of other charges against her, which he was later convicted of and is serving time for. Rich has never been questioned about Kim's death."

Remembering Kim

Kimberly Parker was born and grew up in Weymouth.

She graduated from Weymouth South High School in 1985, listing Led Zeppelin as her favorite band in her senior yearbook, with their song "In the Light" listed as her top choice.

She was part of a group of about 10 close-knit friends – and she was wholly devoted and loyal to all of them.

"I came from Boston. I moved down here on my birthday, when I had turned 12 years old," said Cheryl Mone, of Hanover. "I lived in the same complex as Kim. She instantly friended me and took me under her wing and showed me the ropes. She always made me feel like I was part of the group – always being kind and sweet and open."

And she beat the odds – earning a bachelor's degree from American International College in Springfield and then a master's in Charleston, South Carolina.

"Kim could have easily been a victim of her upbringing, as we all know," said Mary Fanning, of Hanson. "Statistically, absolutely, could have been that victim and instead, she was highly educated, well-admired. She was a petal to a flower."

Kimberly Parker's passions in life outside of her family and friends were her dogs, Bruschi and Brady, and her cat, Mangus.

"In our more recent years, we had a sleepover at her house. I was highly allergic to the cats," said Amy Madden, of Canton. "Kim was so funny. She said, 'Here, just open the door. Here's a pillow.'"

"She threw you out and kept the cats. That was Kim," Deeley said, laughing. "Her pets were everything."

Kimberly Parker was also always the cool neighbor who would throw the best, most elaborate Halloween parties.

"Everyone would come with their kids," Deeley said. "It was a real haunted house. She just was someone who loved people. But as she spent more and more time with Rich, she became more and more withdrawn."

Kimberly, whose maiden name was Boleza, married Richard Parker, a Boston firefighter, in 2005. They purchased a home on Satucket Avenue in East Bridgewater, around the corner from the Sachem Rock Farm.

"She was always so confident," said Karen "Gilly" Bausemer, of Whitman. "Until she met Rich."

'My husband's trying to kill me'

Those words began a chilling 911 call made by Kimberly Parker to police early in the morning on Dec. 18, 2011. Richard Parker had been out at a bar the previous night with friends and returned home planning to attend a Christmas party with his wife. But he was drunk.

Over the next few hours, Kimberly Parker told police that her husband became enraged, began calling her names, held her against her will, tried to tie her up, threatened to kill her and even threw knives at her.

She was able to escape the house with her dogs and hide behind a neighbor's home while making the call to police.

"Inside the residence, there were items thrown everywhere, bureaus overturned, glasses smashed, doors kicked in with holes in them and a wall that had been smashed in with cut marks in it," Officer Joel Silva wrote in a police report.

Richard Parker was arrested that night and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, kidnapping and threatening to commit a crime (murder). Days later, a Brockton District Court judge ruled that he would pose a danger if released from custody and he was held without bail.

In March 2012, Richard Parker was indicted by a grand jury on charges of assault with intent to commit murder, kidnapping, assault with a dangerous weapon, threatening to commit a crime and intimidation of a witness.

Again, he was held without bail following a detention hearing in Brockton Superior Court – until he was released on $10,000 bail (paid by Kimberly Parker) and conditions in June 2012, which included only having telephone contact with his wife. He was also ordered to undergo mental health and addiction treatment.

But his attorney, Gerald J. Noonan, successfully petitioned that October for Richard Parker to live with his wife. Kimberly Parker had previously developed seizures before the incident her husband was jailed for (he told family members she fell off a horse, she told them she fell in the driveway, they say) and wasn't able to drive.

Less than five months after her husband moved back in, Kimberly Parker was found unresponsive on her front lawn – on March 10, 2013.

It wasn't until two years after Kimberly's death that Richard Parker was convicted. A jury found him guilty of kidnapping, assault with a dangerous weapon and intimidation of a witness. He was sentenced to serve 4 to 6 years in state prison.

Undetermined death

Kimberly Parker was just 45 years old when she died.

Richard Parker, who was the only other person at the house when his wife was found unresponsive, made the 911 call to police. A heavily redacted police log from that night was provided to Daily News' sister publication, The Enterprise of Brockton, by East Bridgewater Deputy Police Chief Paul O'Brien, the department's records access officer. The log indicates that O'Brien, a sergeant at the time, was dispatched five minutes after the 911 call was received and arrived on scene just two seconds after being dispatched. No other officers are listed as having responded to the Parkers' house.

O'Brien cleared the scene 16 minutes later, the log states. An incident report from that night describes the incident as a sudden death and lists "no crime involved."

East Bridgewater Fire Department records reveal they received a call for medical help at the home at 8:09 p.m. that night. They arrived at 8:13 p.m., the same time police received a 911 call. O'Brien was dispatched at 8:18 p.m.

Police Chief Scott Allen, who was a detective-sergeant at the time, and O'Brien declined to speak about the case.

"The district attorney’s office and medical examiner’s office have jurisdiction over this case," Allen wrote in an email, declining to comment further.

The cause and manner of Kimberly Parker's death have never been determined. Her death certificate lists "undetermined" as the cause.

"It's just lazy work – an unidentified cause of death," said Patrick Boleza, Kimberly Parker's nephew and godson, of Dorchester. "Without the effort of my family, it would have just gone away, it would have disappeared."

Dr. Henry Nields, the chief medical examiner at the time of Kimberly Parker's death, told Deeley in a May 2015 email that the autopsy did not reveal a natural disease that would have accounted for her sister's cause of death. The combination of the autopsy and scene investigation also revealed Kimberly Parker had not fallen in a way that blocked her airways, he said. A toxicology report did indicate she had high levels of her medications in her system at the time of death.

Both Kimberly and Richard Parker were "bioterrorism chemical warfare experts," according to an East Bridgewater police report.

It was well over a year later that the Plymouth County district attorney's office and Kimberly Parker's family received an autopsy report from the medical examiner's office saying the cause of her death was undetermined.

Richard Parker had previously threatened to kill himself on numerous occasions and even attempted suicide by ingesting ricin, which led to a large hazardous materials response at their East Bridgewater home, just three months before the knives incident. Richard Parker swallowed castor beans, but they hadn’t soaked long enough to extract the ricin and he was released from a hospital after a week.

While he was in jail facing charges from the knife incident, before he was allowed out to live with his wife, he encouraged her over recorded phone calls not to testify against him.

The district attorney's office says the investigation into Kimberly Parker's death remains open.

"The death of Kimberly Parker was a tragedy," said Beth Stone, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Timothy Cruz. "The investigation into her death remains ongoing by (Massachusetts) State Police and East Bridgewater police and her case remains open.”

At Richard Parker's oral arguments hearing in the Mass. Appeals Court in November (he's appealing the conviction stemming from the 2011 incident), a judge asked if Kimberly Parker's death was caused by her husband as a result of the assault.

"I know this is outside the record, but her death did not stem from this incident, did it?" the judge asked.

Assistant District Attorney Jessica Kenny replied that the office still strives to "investigate and determine a cause of death for her."

Seeking answers

Kimberly Parker's family says they are left with far more questions than answers.

If the medical examiner returned with a "rational" cause of death, even one that accounted for a cause Richard Parker had nothing to do with, the family said they would be at peace.

But they say that hasn't happened in the six years since she died.

Her family never even got her ashes after losing a long custody battle. They've never determined what happened with them and Kimberly Parker doesn't have a grave site because of it.

Deeley was eventually successful in lobbying for Heather’s Law, a bill that now prohibits the next of kin charged with the murder of a spouse or other family member to claim a body. But it doesn’t apply in this case, because Richard Parker has never been charged in Kimberly Parker’s death.

"By the police's own admission to us, Rich has never been questioned about Kim's death," Deeley said. "I don't know if any of you have witnessed a fender-bender, they make you stay and take your information. They have never even asked him a question. How can that be justified? We are not unreasonable or demanding. We all lost somebody they loved. If it was Chief Allen's wife or the DA's sister or the ME's daughter, they would be demanding the same thing we are demanding. They would want justice."

Joseph Giacalone, a retired New York City Police Department detective sergeant and current adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said police should have treated Kimberly Parker's death – and all suspicious deaths – as a homicide from day one.

"You treat every death as if it's suspicious until proven otherwise, because you don't get a second chance at it," he said. "You only have one shot at a crime scene, one shot at gathering evidence. It's next to impossible to recreate it. Then, you're relying on doctors, jailhouse records. It's not ideal, but it's not impossible."

Giacalone said it would be common for investigators, in the case of the night Kimberly Parker was found unconscious, to ask for permission to enter the house to see if there were signs of a struggle, to take statements, speak to neighbors and try to find any surveillance footage in the neighborhood.

"Unfortunately, I understand it leaves the family very upset and seeking closure, but sometimes it takes time for justice's wheels to turn," he said. "It might have been a lot easier if certain steps were taken from the beginning of the investigation."

Ahead of the anniversary of her death, Kimberly Parker's family and friends said many memories of her kept coming to their minds.

"Kim wouldn't want any of us suffering," Deeley said. "For no other reason, she would want answers so that we could all be at peace."

'A good father'

Richard Parker, a divorced father of two, was a Boston firefighter for 25 years, retiring due to a disability in 2009. He responded to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City. He lived in Westwood prior to meeting Kimberly Parker.

One of his sons, Lance Parker, who moved to Texas in his early 20s to live with his mother when they split up, says he still communicates weekly with his father while he's in prison.

"This whole deal that's going on right now is shocking to me," he said. "He was a good father. He provided. He was good in the community."

Lance Parker, 35, who works in construction, said he learned most of what he knows from his father.

"There was never any violence in the household between him and my mother growing up. They had arguments, but never any physical violence." he said. "He's not a murderer. He saves lives. That's his personality – he helps people."

Richard Parker is still waiting for a ruling on the appeal of his conviction. The court on Tuesday waived the 130-day guideline to give themselves more time to decide on the appeal.

The attorneys who defended him at his criminal trial four years ago, Gerald Noonan and his son Patrick, declined to comment as they said they don't represent Richard Parker any longer.

'Pray for justice'

Richard Parker is set to be released from prison in September. He was denied parole at the first opportunity in December 2017. He didn't seek early parole this past December.

"Subject took no responsibility for his actions," the board stated in denying his parole at the time. "He is a classic batterer, who abused his wife physically, emotionally and financially over a period of years. ... At one point during the hearing, he attempted to disparage his wife."

Even six years later, each of Kimberly Parker's friends and family members who recently gathered at her brother's home in Abington to reminisce on her life say they still have hope they will one day get justice in her death.

"And that he's not going to be able to do this to someone else," added Cheryl Boleza, Kimberly Parker's sister-in-law. "None of this can bring Kim back, but it would be worth it if it can help someone else."

Deeley says she will never give up her fight for justice.

"I want her to rest in peace," she said. "I want us to rest in peace."

Reach Cody Shepard at cshepard@enterprisenews.com. Follow him on Twitter @cshepard_ENT.

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